The Witch's Dilemma
by Vos
Summary: Unable to escape the stereotypical image of the evil witch, Izzie decides to conform to it. She kidnaps a princess, but discovers that being evil is a difficult business.


Author's Note: This story is loosely based on "The Frog Prince". It was written as an assignment for my Writer's Craft course, and I would greatly appreciate some constructive criticism.

The Witch's Dilemma 

Once upon a time, in the kingdom of Marzipan, in a condominium by the forest, there lived a witch called Izzie. Every day, people from the surrounding villages of the kingdom came to her for advice and medical attention. Despite the influx of visitors, she had no friends. Her patients were frightened that she'd turn them into toads, and all of the talking animals in the kingdom had been employed at Disney and moved to California.

"Drastic actions are necessary to remedy this situation," she said. The patient on her examination table quivered in fear, and the pitchfork in his leg quivered with him.

"Really?" he said, wildly scanning the room for possible escape routes, "d-drastic action? Because that's not necessary…I can pull it out on my own."

"I wasn't talking to you," Izzie said, yanking the pitchfork out absent-mindedly. The patient yelped, and promptly passed out. She poured some magic potion on the wound and it sealed itself.

"You know, people might like you better if you stopped dressing in black," said a nasal voice behind her back. Izzie turned around to face her magic mirror.

"Your job is to give me messages from fellow witches, not comment on my clothes," she snapped.

"I may be a magically altered inanimate object, but I have feelings too," said the mirror. "Anyway, the king of Molasses is missing a son, Terence, and he is asking all the witches and warlocks to keep an eye out for him."

Izzie nodded and decided to take a trip to town. She had to drop off her unconscious patient at his home, and she needed a new broom. As she strolled through the marketplace, people made a wide circle around her. The broom-makers apprentice, a young man called Jack, barely managed to contain his hysteria as Izzie perused the selection.

As she paid for her purchases, she saw the terrified looks on the faces of the villagers, and she lost her temper.

" I have been a very nice witch! I have delivered babies, cured illnesses, and reattached fingers, and people still quiver in my presence." Her black eyes scanned the marketplace, looking for an understanding face. Finding none, she…erm…became very angry. "Fine! If you want a scary witch, you shall get one!" With that, she stomped off to her flat.

The next day, Izzie snuck into the king's castle, and kidnapped his youngest and most beautiful daughter, Temperance. According to all the latest gossip, kidnapping royalty was all the rage. Hopefully, the king would send an army after her and she'd prove how evil she could be. Unfortunately, her genius plan didn't work out, for upon discovering his daughter's empty bed, the king shrugged.

"Maybe living with a witch will put some sense into her," he said. No armies were sent out, and no rewards were promised to any princes.

Izzie soon began to regret her rash decision. The princess, Temperance,did living up to her name, and she had insisted on bringing along her pet frog. Upon arrival at Izzie's flat,Temperancebegan to complain. And she never shut up.

"I'm bored," she said, brushing her golden hair.

"Read a book."

"They're all about magic. It's boring."

"Help me make a potion"

"It could stain my dress."

Izzie decided to give up trying to entertain Temperance and settled for hating her with a passion. Temperance used up all the hot water, and she constantly sang sappy love songs in a high, reedy voice. The seven dwarfs living in the flat below were getting really pissed off.

After a week, one of them approached her as she was coming back from a shopping trip. Princess Temperance was running out of moisturizer, and some of Izzie's potions were running low, so she needed to restock.

"Izzie," said the dwarf, Doc, "get rid of the princess. Or we may be forced to bury her in a glass coffin in a remote part of the woods."

Three days later, Izzie had given up all hope of a rescue operation, and she still had a princess on her hands. She decided to take out an ad in the local paper, the Marzipan Chronicle:

_"Hear ye, hear ye….The beautiful princess Temperance has been kidnapped by an evil, nasty, horrible witch. Anyone wishing to rescue her, please come to 874 Gingerbread Lane, apt. 1718. Reward available."_

Soon, princes and knights from all over the country began to show up, but they gave up when they learned that Izzie lived on the 17th floor of her building, and the lifts were out of service. Izzie was at her wits end. She couldn't figure out what to do with the princess, and the seven dwarfs had recently been seen carting around a suspicious looking box.

One day, someone knocked on her door. She lunged toward it, and nearly wept with joy when she saw a handsome young prince on the welcome mat.

"Hello," he said. "I'm here about the advertisement."

"That's wonderful!" Izzie said, "I'll go fetch the Princess."

"Princess?" he shook his head. "No, no, no, I have business for the '_evil, nasty, horrible witch'"._

"Why?"

"I need your help."

"What for?"

"My name is Terry. I've been a frog for the past few months, and my parents are probably worried. Can you use your magic mirror to send them a message?"

"Why don't you just gohome in person?"

"It would take two months. I don't want to worry them any longer"

"Oh. I see your point." Izzie invited the Prince inside, and closed the door. He gave her an awkward smile.

"That's a pretty plant," he said, pointing to the nearest pot on the windowsill.

"It's hemlock. It can kill you." Izzie said, and turned toward her magic mirror.

"Mirror, I need you," she said.

"No way. You refused my advice before. I will not help you again."

"But the lost prince of Molasses has just turned up on my doorstep!"

"Tough. Find another way to tell his parents."

Izzie turned to the prince. "I'm sorry. I can get you home on my magic carpet. It will only take a few weeks."

So Izzie, Temperance and Terry set out to Molasses. Izzie found that she liked Terry quite a bit. In fact, maybe more than quite a bit. He was intelligent, charming and he had a great sense of humor. Unfortunately, his charm also extended to Princess Temperance, and Izzie had to restrain herself from pushing the flirtatious girl off the carpet, onto the mountains below.

Temperance, who had been a nightmare, was now the perfect picture of a princess. She was cheerful, polite and she oozed charm. Izzie miserably put her full attention to flying the carpet to Molasses. It was a difficult job, as the mountains were huge, and they had narrowly avoided colliding with various cloud-obscured peaks.

Eventually, they made it to Terry's castle, where his parents came out to meet them.

"Terry, darling," said his mother, "I've missed you so much!"

"Hello Mother, Father" he said. "This is Izzie. She brought me home." Then he pointed to Temperance. "And this is the bloody prat who turned me into a frog!"

Temperance tried to deny it, but Terry cut in. "When your family came to visit us a few months ago, I spurned your advances. In revenge, you told your fairy godmother that I had tried to seduce you, and she turned me into a frog!"

"But I don't remember you at all!"

"That's because you are a spoiled twit. You forgot about me as soon as something else had caught your interest. It took me months to track you down in the hope of begging to ask your fairy GM to change me back."

"How did you get changed back?" Izzie asked.

"When you kidnapped Temperance, I started sampling your magic potions. One of them worked."

So Temperance was sent home in disgrace (the King didn't think it was politically advantageous to kill the daughter of his neighbour), and Izzie stayed with Terry and his parents. Witches were very well liked in Molasses. And a few years later, Terry and Izzie got married and lived happily ever after.

The End.


End file.
